This invention relates to the polymerization of olefin monomers in a liquid diluent.
Addition polymerizations are frequently carried out in a liquid that is a solvent for the resulting polymer. When high-density (linear) ethylene polymers first became commercially available in the 1950's this was the method used. It was soon discovered that a more efficient way to produce such polymers was to carry out the polymerization under slurry conditions. More specifically, the polymerization technique of choice became continuous slurry polymerization in a pipe loop reactor with the product being taken off by settling legs that operated on a batch principle to recover product. This technique has enjoyed international success with billions of pounds of ethylene polymers being so produced annually. With this success has come the desirability of building a smaller number of large reactors as opposed to a larger number of small reactors for a given plant capacity.
Settling legs, however, do present two problems. First, they represent the imposition of a “batch” technique onto a basic continuous process. Each time a settling leg reaches the stage where it “dumps” or “fires” accumulated polymer slurry it causes an interference with the flow of slurry in the loop reactor upstream and the recovery system downstream. Also the valve mechanism essential to periodically seal off the settling legs from the reactor upstream and the recovery system downstream requires frequent maintenance due to the difficulty in maintaining a tight seal with the large diameter valves needed for sealing the legs.
Secondly, as reactors have gotten larger, the settling legs present logistic problems. If a pipe diameter is doubled the volume of the reactor goes up four-fold. However, because of the valve mechanisms involved, the size of the settling legs cannot easily be increased further. Hence the number of legs required begins to exceed the physical space available.
In spite of these limitations, settling legs have continued to be employed where olefin polymers are formed as a slurry in a liquid diluent. This is because, unlike bulk slurry polymerizations (i.e. where the monomer is the diluent) where solids concentrations of better than 60 percent are routinely obtained, olefin polymer slurries in a diluent are generally limited to no more than 37 to 40 weight percent solids. Hence settling legs have been believed to be necessary to give a final slurry product at the exit to the settling legs of greater than 37–40 percent. This is because, as the name implies, settling occurs in the legs to thus increase the solids concentration of the slurry finally recovered as product slurry.
Another factor affecting maximum practical reactor solids is circulation velocity, with a higher velocity for a given reactor diameter allowing for higher solids since a limiting factor in the operation is reactor fouling due to polymer build up in the reactor.
Two pertinent patents addressing loop reactors for slurry polymerization are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,239,235 and 6,204,344, each of which is incorporated here by reference in its entirety for its description of loop reactors and their diameters, lengths, equipment, and operation.